Multinational businesses are realizing that their bottom-line is increasingly dependent on the changing environment and its limited resources. Companies like Coca-Cola and Nike are speaking out, having lost profits to water shortages and extreme weather respectively. Meanwhile, to address these challenges, many companies, like Glaxo-Smith Klein, are looking to big data to guide them. A recent article from the Guardian, “Why big data will have a big impact on sustainability,” notes that “when it comes to sustainability the great thing about big data is that it is unlocking the ability of businesses to understand and act on what are typically their biggest environmental impacts – the ones outside their control.” Yet while corporations are starting to recognize that their impact on the environment directly impacts their bottom-line, most of them are only scratching the surface of what big data has to offer to address it.

The challenge is two-fold: being able to interpret, analyze, and act on data as well as making sure the right data is being aggregated.

Ory holds a Ph.D. in physics and founded and led a few companies (QuantomiX, HelioFocus). A longtime proponent and creator of clean technologies, he founded Energy Points when he realized the world needed a better, more accurate way to evaluate and understand energy use.